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Full houses, food and beverage sales help Luminato boost bottom line

When Bebel Gilberto took the stage at Luminato’s Festival The Hub on Monday evening, throngs of people standing in David Pecaut Square were clearly in a state of bliss — swaying along to the distinctive jazzy bossa nova sound of the justly celebrated singer from Brazil.

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No doubt the mood-elevating power of the show was enhanced by the fact that spectators could drink and munch while enjoying the music. And the fact that The Hub is now licensed should also improve the mood of those concerned with Luminato’s financial results as well as its cultural scorecard.

“We were looking for a way to monetize the popularity of free events at The Hub while at the same time making them even more attractive to the public,” says Luminato CEO Janice Price.

It’s one of many changes Luminato is introducing to compensate for long-anticipated reductions in government funding by increasing revenue from other sources.

That’s why the festival sought to form a partnership with a food-and-beverage operator, and selected the owners of the trendy Queen West restaurant Parts & Labour.

There’s a risk factor for the operator, but in addition to a basic licensing fee, Luminato gets a share of the loot.

Another way of increasing revenue at The Hub: for the first time, on three prime weekend nights, the show is not free. There are already signs that move is paying off. The $35 ticket charge did not deter 3,400 happy fans who jammed Pecaut Square on Saturday night for a concert by the Grammy-winning rap group The Roots. (In fact, security rules make 3,500 the maximum number of people who can occupy the square at any time.)

When it comes to Luminato’s shows for seated audiences in theatres, the hottest tickets are the ones for four performances of Kontakthof, starting Wednesday June 11 at the Bluma Appel Theatre. It’s better known as the Pina Bausch event, because this piece, set in a drab dance hall, is the most celebrated work of the legendary German choreographer, who died in 2009.

Also sold out is If I Loved You, a one-night only show created by Rufus Wainwright, who will be constantly on stage singing Broadway love duets with other famous guys.

With the boost of those full houses, the festival has a good chance of meeting its target for ticket revenue, which is close to $1 million. That means the eighth annual edition of the festival will, as usual, avoid red ink.

Another big success for the festival was its gala last week at the Hearn Generating Station, which was used to provide the city’s electrical power until it was decommissioned more than 30 years ago.

Jorn Weisbrodt, the festival’s artistic director, originally scouted the Hearn as a possible venue for a performance. When that plan failed to materialize, he realized it could be a great space for a party. To this native of Germany, the Hearn seemed just like one of the factories and bunkers in the former East Berlin that have lately been reclaimed and reinvented as cultural hotspots. Luminato even went so far as to divide one side of the long tables from the other side with cardboard versions of the Berlin Wall.

Upshot: even though it took place the same night as the dinner for the Griffin poetry prizes and The Power Plant’s Power Ball, Luminato’s gala was embraced by members of Toronto most affluent arts supporters.

“The word got out that our event had such a cool location it was un-missable,” says Price.

With 42 tables of 10 available for $15,000 each, the event was sold out well in advance. And the net take for the festival (after expenses) was more than $400,000.

Here’s a tip for other arts organizations: Instead of doing your events in the usual culture palaces and five-star hotels, find a spot that’s unknown and reeks with history and a sense of venturing into a whole other world.

Still, I can’t help wondering why those who pay big money to attend such an event failed to embrace one of the most exciting pieces of theatre I have seen in years. That’s Cineastas, which was just as memorable a Latino burst of creativity as Bebel Gilberto’s show at The Hub. But in this case it came from Spanish-speaking Argentina, not Portuguese-speaking Brazil.

Cineastas is a play staged simultaneously on two levels, all about the history of Argentina’s filmmakers. It’s performed in Spanish, with English surtitles. There were three performances at the MacMillan Theatre. Alas, the theatre was more than half empty.

Where were the people who flock to foreign-language films at TIFF? Perhaps Toronto theatre-goers are less open to experience the shock of the new than film audiences. Or maybe they need to have the draw of a celebrity name. Sadly, whatever the reason, many people who would have loved this show failed to turn up. For me Cineastas was the high point of the festival’s first half.

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